Below, Ena and Gammadian, both Being Energy® teachers from England, are sharing their experience of living and teaching a Being Energy retreat in India. Enjoy it! Aerin
“[The Rishikesh Recapitulation Retreat] is an intimate group and very powerful for everyone going through the process of recapitulation of our lives. This morning we welcomed the sun on the bank of the Ganga river practicing the movement sequences, Flow, calling inner silence and bathing in the river. The Indian people believe that when you immerse yourself in the water three times, the Ganga washes away all your sins. This intent is very supportive of what we intend for ourselves in this retreat.
Tomorrow we will be taking part in a local fire ceremony and Aarti (a song of gratitude to the Ganga) on the riverbank. Then we will visit some magic waterfalls in the mountains and a sacred cave of the Rishi Vaishist where we can practice inner silence.”
This retreat followed an annual Karma Ling celebration in India. Gammadian tells that at the core of the program was Being Energy with three teachers. They practiced the Sword Form and Rallying the Dreaming Attention, along with Glistening in Dreaming, and had around 35 people for most sessions.
As Ena and Gammadian and other BE teachers tell us, teaching Being Energy is richly rewarding. Ena says, “Throughout this year, I have been teaching Being Energy to many people in weekly classes, individual sessions and workshops and taking part in the BE Skilled classes has been a valuable tool for me to learn, practice and grow.”
Ena also shared about a series of Being Energy classes that she and Gammadian recently taught during a yoga festival in the English countryside, “A lot of people joined our classes and every day we had people coming to thank us for sharing this gift of spirit and giving us feedback of how they liked the movements, how they felt energized after the practice like they never felt energized after any other practice before. A few of them told us they may have found a practice they wanted to follow for life. It felt so rewarding to have this exchange and to feel a part of something bigger than us. We came back from this festival full of love, energy and new inspirations.”
Below, Dr. Barbara VEncelj, a Being Energy® teacher from Slovenia is sharing her experience on being a emergency doctor and practicing Being Energy. Enjoy it! Aerin
“This is my story of confidence. It revealed itself during the BE workshop in Italy this spring and now I am sharing it with you dear reader. I admit to having the same fear and lack of confidence that this story is about while writing this, but when I connect with the earth supporting me and sky inspiring me, I can let the words flow, and the story tell itself.
I am happy to feel aligned with confidence in my life—most of the time. I feel safe to travel around, admire the magical world and connect with other people, animals, water, mountains, trees and things I encounter along the way, and to breathe in and out freely. This feeling of safety and being accepted comes from my family, and I’ve also found it from the earth, as it supports me in every step I make, and the sky and stars that keep drawing out my dreams.
If I close my eyes and think of confidence, an image of my father pops out. His working hands—strong brownish hands—and a smile on his face, he seemed able to tackle any task around the house and garden you can imagine. He fixed things with an ease and joy that was contagious. Whenever something broke—car, bike, washing machine, fence, roof, you name it—he could mend it. If there was a mathematical task, if a neighbor, a friend, mum, my brother or I needed a hand, he was there. With a sparkle in his eyes and light around of focused attention, he would accomplished his task, confidently and with sobriety. It was like something bigger supported him. Earth and sky.
I guess some of this confidence and kindness came to me through him.
I chose to become a medical doctor, not really knowing why. I naturally want to help others in need. When I was a kid, if another kid was injured when we were playing, I cleaned and bandaged the wound and gave them a hug. I could do it with ease and love at the same time. I wasn’t afraid of seeing blood and damaged tissues. I could help with a confidence and calmness I cannot explain. That is why I became an emergency doctor, so that I could help and be with people in the worst moments, to act fast, with sobriety and calm to help a person out of danger. My intent, beyond offering treatment, is to mostly give comfort to others and be present as kind and loving human by their side… to hold their hand, listen, smile, and maybe help take the fear away in the scary environment of an ambulance or helicopter.
After ten years of being an emergency doctor, I realize that this is my deeper purpose…not only to ease pain, treat a wounded body and resuscitate hearts, but to give a smile, hold a person in one of their worst moments, give affection in the dark night and acknowledge and salute the spirit in a wounded or dying body—to see the spirit of a person and be beside them…that is my purpose. Today I feel the support of mother Earth and I know infinity holds me. It is my purpose. I am an expression of infinity, one who helps others to feel better, one who connects with others in a supportive, kind and loving way.
Confidence: A key of wellbeing. One aspect of this inside of me is the feeling that I can act with sobriety in every situation. I studied and practiced and trained for years to acquire medical knowledge and skills. Most of the books I read are medical books, and I dedicate a lot of time to study. It brings me joy.
About five years, I joined Being Energy. Connecting with Aerin and Miles and the family of BE people, my perspective widened, and my awareness grows. Like a tree, rooted in the earth that listens to the stars, aligned with the intent of infinity. I have found out that my purpose and confidence is not a matter of my ego, but something bigger, living inside and outside of me. I feel that infinity holds and the earth supports me. Being confident is to be aligned with the force that moves the world around us, and to acquiesce to what my come.
Now every time we rush in an ambulance or helicopter to the scene of an accident, I consciously inhale deeply through my feet upward for support from the earth, and open my heart and crown to align with the universe…and I pray to do it right and well and acquiesce and let infinity hold us.
Its hardest thing of all for me and also for other doctors is to take care of and to resuscitate a seriously ill or injured child. The immense stress and responsibility and fear of losing a child is scary and heavy.
A child is not just a small adult from the medical point of view. A child has a different physiology, different size and weight, different dosage of medicine…and as a doctor, you must be prepared, but there are some things that it isn’t possible to prepare for, and the fear of being responsible for a child’s life is so big that something bigger has to support it. I am here to do the best I know how, to do it in loving way and to be open for support.
It was an early Sunday afternoon on an ordinary busy day in our emergency department, when we got a call that one-and-a-half-year-old toddler had fallen from a second-story window and was laying on the road without signs of life. I felt a shiver go down my spine.
Fear squeezed my heart and brain for a moment… I remember as we were driving to the scene, I started praying for the child. I breathed in the breath from the earth, collecting confidence from the earth and let it travel through my body, through my lover discs to the heart and up to the brain. The breathing brings me to the here and now, and helps me connect to the feeling of trust and confidence. A trust in the universe and in something much bigger and a trust that it all will be ok, as it has to be. As we were driving to the child, something came to calm my mind and heart so that I could easily concentrate on things like calculating the child’s weight, proper dosages of medicine, etc.
We arrived at the scene, and I jumped out of car to the child lying on the ground. This moment was a moment of heightened awareness; it felt like there was a bubble of silence around me and the child,. I didn’t notice the noise of the crowd gathering around us or anything else; we were in a cocoon of light. The world stopped for the moment, and I saw the child breathing in and out, his heart still beating…he is alive…
Feelings of confidence and affection, acknowledgement of fear and trust all became very present at that moment. In the next minutes as we resuscitated the child, I felt the alignment of the universe and the intent that this child is going to live. We were so present, efficient, and the action went with ease and fluidity… we stabilized the child and took him to the hospital… And the child lived.
We are beings of energy, and we are vibrational Beings. Because we are energy, we vibrate. Everything in the Universe is vibrating, moving all of the time. This motion generates frequencies, which become sounds.
A sound, vibration or frequency can be harmonizing for us, or can create disharmony, leading to physical and mental dis-ease. Conversely, a vibration that has a certain resonance can spark a fundamental balance in our being, affecting powerful healing for our bodies, minds and emotions.
Enter gong healing. We’ll be featuring this transformational and time-tested healing experience during our October workshop weekend in Amsterdam. We think you’ll all love the feeling of harmony and Inner Silence that the gongs so immediately activate.
Gongs have been made and used by people from a variety of cultures for many centuries, dating back to at least the Bronze Age. Yet their demonstrated ability to create a sense of peace has never been more needed. We are bombarded by all manner of vibrations in our modern lives. The sound frequency of the gongs can help us feel more harmonious, and balance the experience of energetic chaos that puts roadblocks in the way of our true energy shining forth.
The ripples of sound from gongs that are played with intention bathe your body in waves of balancing vibration. You can think of it as a sound massage that has a positive impact at the cellular and even molecular levels. The effect can be both subtle and dramatic.
The vibration of the gong creates a bridge to connect to your energy being. It penetrates to the subtlest levels of our physiology. We could compare the effect of gongs to the flow of energy crossing the assemblage point and illuminating a segment of fibers.
Christof Bernhard, the gong master who will be with us in Amsterdam, says that, “Every sound we encounter is a painting, a painting created by vibrations of varying complexity. These paintings act on our bodies, minds and emotions.” Every sound has an effect on us. The sounds that gongs create resonate in a very positive way. We can use the sound of Gongs to dissolve blockages that prevent our full expression.
Research shows that our thoughts and feelings impact our physicality, from increased cortisol levels when we’re stressed to lowered immunity if we’re feeling depressed. Most of the time, we don’t consciously direct our thoughts for the benefit of our health, but we do have the power to do just that.
Visualization is a practical tool we can use at any time to deliberately and positively influence our immune system. When we say “visualization,” we really mean much more than seeing with internal eyes. Some of us are not visually oriented, and may not connect to the idea of seeing images with our eyes closed. Instead, let’s think of visualization as image-feeling. The feeling, whether we can cognize images or not, is really what we’re after. The emotion is what has the greatest influence on our health. (For more on that, see Dr. Reid’s blog post: The Power of Words.)
For example, visualize a tree. If you can’t see the trunk, branches, etc. in your mind’s eye, then cognize the feeling of a tree. In either case, when we imagine a tree, there is a feeling that we likely associate with concept of tree. This is what we mean here by visualization. So even if you can’t see that tree, you can still use visualization techniques for your benefit.
How does visualization impact us physically? It becomes part of the chemical conversation going on in our body, creating a blueprint that influences our neuro- and immunotransmitters.
From our earliest moments of life, the brain and immune system are engaged in a constant dialogue. Each influences the other by means of chemical messengers. In fact, the immune system has neurotransmitter receptor sites in white blood cells, lymph nodes and elsewhere, and the brain has receptor sites for immunotransmitters called cytokines.
Three important cytokines are:
Interferons
Interleukins
Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)
Examples of neurotransmitters include:
Seratonin
Norepinephrine
Dopamine
Neurotransmitters circulate throughout the body with specific immune system receptor sites, as mentioned. Emotions impact neurotransmitters and thus affect immunity specifically, and our health generally.
The immune system responds to messages from the brain formed by images or emotions. We can deliberately create mental images or encourage emotions to impact our immune systems in a positive way. Instead of letting our unconscious thoughts steer our health, we can consciously direct thoughts and feelings for greater energy and vitality.
You can use visualization in any moment to influence your experience, or you can use guided visualization for a different and often deeper effect. One of the simplest approaches is to use a counterbalancing visualization. Let’s say, for example, that you feel nervous—you can imagine yourself being calm and strong. Or maybe you feel tired—consciously imagine yourself being active, feeling what it feels like to have more energy. If you’re cold, you can imagine sitting in the sun on a tropical beach, or if you have high blood pressure, you can visualize your blood pressure going down.
If a person is dealing with cancer and thinks “I’m doomed,” it certainly doesn’t help the immune system. Indeed, fear may be the most weakening emotion for immunity.
If we let negative thoughts run unchecked, they can weaken us, versus consciously visualizing life and vitality. We can use the tool of directed visualization on the spur of the moment when there is a need or when we notice an unhelpful thought.
We can also use guided imagery to potent effect. Being Energy, our educational program on health on vitality, recently released the CD Into Your Heart, a guided visualization from Dr. Reid.
The visualization is designed to help you regulate the flow of your hormones and neurotransmitters in a way that reduces stress in your body and increases happiness. Dr. Reid guides you to opening yourself to the energy of your heart, to heal emotional hurts and find out what really matters to you.
In addition, you can try this guided visualization, or “recapitulation” for resolving past hurts. It guides you to evoking the feeling of safety and nourishment that one experiences in the mother’s womb for greater energy and vitality in daily life: Remember that you can use visualization to benefit your life any time you like, whether it’s a quick image that you form in your mind to help you manage a situation, or whether you sit down.
Below, Tom Reavley, a Being Energy® teacher from US is sharing his experience teaching this work and facing his fears. Enjoy it! – Aerin
“As a BE teacher, I often have to face all of my fears and insecurities when I begin to plan a class. I find myself asking: Who am I to be offering instruction to others in something so elusive and difficult to talk about as turning the wheel of time? How do we create a pause in the seemingly unceasing repetition of our own stories? How can I honestly stand before others when I really don’t understand anything myself?
Carlos Castaneda used to say that no one “understands” anything. A real understanding would require going behind or beyond the assumptions on which all attempts at understanding are based—something that we can never do because at the base of everything is pure mystery, the unknowable. It’s like the child who responds to every step of an adult’s explanation with “Why?” until finally his parent has to tell him that there is no “why” for some questions. However, even without understanding anything, we can handle and enjoy life and the world perfectly well; we can function wonderfully.
When I guide Being Energy classes or teach it to others, my only option is to suspend my own story—which includes plenty of self doubts about handling something that can’t be reduced to logic or reason—and let the spirit channel through me, even if only for a while. Under the pressure of my commitment to present something, I have to relax at some point and let ideas flow—what to emphasize, how to express it, what sequences of movements to do—and then connect to the energetic feeling that the movements and practices create. This is especially true when presenting the Code or guiding a recapitulation session. It is a complete mystery why the movements of the Code silence the mind, but I do experience that silence and I feel it as a direct connection between me and those who I am guiding, even when we are on different parts of the globe, communicating by Internet but also through our energetic link.
Recapitulating in a group is even more mysterious. If each one of us is reviewing his own distinct life experiences, what is the value of pursuing this as a group or class activity? For one thing, we are conditioned to the discipline of a schedule and an agreement to meet together, so the class format helps us take that initial step—just do it! Beyond this practical advantage, the group format helps create and reinforce a certain mood—of silence, of courage and determination to face ourselves without judgment. The suspending of judgment also applies to the act of recapitulation itself. Even when nothing comes to us as an experience worthy of recapitulation, we accept this without self-criticism and with a mood of curiosity and wonder. Even the most seemingly mundane experience we happen to remember can lead to discovery and self-knowledge.
The challenge of integrating our innermost core, the essence of our being, with our behavior and choices is not a goal against which we judge ourselves as winners or losers. It is a path, a process that continues throughout our lives. Everyone has doubts, and each of us loses the feeling of fluid energy and silence over and over. However, if we have tasted this energy and silence, we know how to find it and keep coming back, trying to go deeper and maintain this position longer. By deciding to teach, you are committing yourself. You are choosing to put yourself on the line and rally your energy each time you lead others, even though you have no guarantees that you will succeed. When a class approaches and you feel lost, the commitment comes to your aid. It focuses your attention and activates your intent so that you can genuinely connect to the inexhaustible source of life and creativity. You stand before others not knowing exactly what you will say, but with a feeling of certainty that expresses itself in your voice, your eyes and your movements. And in that moment you have changed your story—you are someone or something else, an expression of the infinite.
What a great gift is this opportunity to share beauty of spirit with others!” – Tom
